


A Month in Mahogany

by dustandroses



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Community: tamingthemuse, Established Relationship, Ficlet, Kinda Fluffy, M/M, Non-Comics Compliant, POV: Xander, Post-Canon, Romance, Warning: Excessive Fondling of Hardwoods
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-24
Updated: 2014-03-24
Packaged: 2018-01-16 19:43:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1359517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dustandroses/pseuds/dustandroses
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Xander needs a break, but he refuses to slow down until they sic Spike on him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Month in Mahogany

**Author's Note:**

> **Prompt Notes:** Inspiration for this fic taken from the Live Journal community Tamingthemuse prompt #400: Mahogany  
>  **Notes:** I spent a lot of time researching [mahogany](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahogany), and [Florida](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida), for this little story. You can find out more about them both at the links.

Xander wasn’t too sure about spending an entire month in Florida, but he wasn’t given a lot of choice. The house had been left to the Slayer’s Council, and they’d decided not to sell it, so they’d set up a kind of timeshare system, and used the old place as a retreat for those who needed a break. By the time Xander hit the wall, he’d been working pretty much solidly for four years, traveling from one hotspot to another, with a rotating set of Slayers, and an on-again/off-again relationship with a certain blond vampire that he couldn’t seem to say no to. 

Buffy and Willow had been telling him he needed to take a vacation for some time now, but the last thing he wanted to do was spend any time relaxing. Relaxing led to introspection, and every time Xander started thinking about his life, it didn’t take long before he got caught up in a cycle of regrets and the anguish of mistakes he could have prevented, lives he should have saved, and horrors that he’d give almost anything to have never seen. No, he was better off without that. He’d rather just keep going – keep pushing until he drove the thoughts away. 

He finally crashed headfirst into that wall in Cleveland, at the Council’s US headquarters. There’d been a rather spectacular shouting match with both Faith and Wood that had all the little Slayers wide-eyed, whispering behind their hands, and gasping in shock. That was when they sicced Spike on him. He showed up the next day, and threatened to hogtie Xander if that’s what it took to get him on the plane. Two days later, they were in Florida. He smirked at Spike as they got off the late-night flight – what the hell was a vampire going to do in the Sunshine State? 

When they got to the house, Xander was impressed, despite himself. The Mahogany House was a beautiful Victorian home that was almost as old as Spike, well-cared for, full of gorgeous detail and full of dark, polished mahogany. He hadn’t realized that mahogany was native to Southern Florida, but the book in the entranceway that gave the history of the house said that when it was built, Florida’s West Indian mahogany was in widespread use, even though these days it was an endangered species. Running his hand across a beautifully carved mantelpiece, Xander realized that all this wood had to be original to the house, since mahogany got darker as it aged.

Spike fussed around in the kitchen and the master bedroom while Xander wandered the hallways, and odd little corners, and stairways that seemed to pop up at random and lead him to even more odd little rooms. He brushed his hands over the reddish-brown wood, and wondered what it had been like back when Spike was still alive. It was a quiet house, not too fussy the way some Victorian houses could be, and he felt at home there immediately, although he didn’t tell that to Spike, just on principle. When he fell into bed that night, he slept better than he had in years.

He’d been afraid that he’d be bored silly within a week, but Spike didn’t give him much of a chance for that. They played Scrabble, which Spike always won – Xander suspected he was hoarding the vowels. Spike won at poker, too, but Xander _knew_ he was cheating on that one; he always cheated at poker. For some reason, Xander did better at Gin. They played endless videogames, and Spike gave Xander tips on how to improve his pool game. Spike had surprised him by not only bringing along a wide assortment of Xander’s favorite sci-fi shows and movies, but by being willing to watch them, too.

And they had sex. A lot. Spike bent Xander over the mahogany balustrade on the third floor landing, and rimmed him until he saw stars – although that might have been the lack of blood going to his brain, since all of it was headed in the opposite direction. Then Xander bent Spike over the heavy wood of the pool table in the game room, and fucked him so hard that _Spike_ saw stars. They had sex in the pool out back, and in the Jacuzzi, and in the shower. And don’t forget the beach. Xander put his foot down though, when Spike wanted to fuck on the blanket – sand does not belong in some parts of the body. Spike had to settle for a blow job.

They fucked over the bar in the game room, and Xander came close to knocking Spike out when an almost full bottle of JackDaniels toppled off the carved wood surface as he gripped it so tightly his fingers hurt. They were so enthusiastic in front of the fireplace in the bedroom that the bearskin rug slid all over the polished hardwood floor. They laughed so hard that Spike snorted, and Xander embarrassed himself by giggling for a solid minute before he calmed down enough that they could get back into the mood. They had sex in every room, and on practically every piece of antique furniture in the house. They’d only been there two weeks when Xander realized that he was never again going to be able to look at mahogany without getting a hard-on.

The night before they left, Spike sat Xander down and made him a proposition. From now on, they worked as a team. If the Council sent one of them somewhere, they both went, or neither did. Xander accused him of trying to pamper the crazy guy, but Spike reminded him that he’d had his share of crazy, too. Besides, it got lonely on the road, with no one but himself to talk to. Sure, there were usually a couple of Slayers around, but they were kids, and he and Xander had history that they’d never understand. Xander could see his point - it did get lonely. Maybe it would be easier to deal with the pain if he had someone who understood standing beside him.

So he told Spike, yeah, alright, he could do that. Spike’s smile was like the sun coming out, brilliant and happy, and Xander realized that Spike wanted it for himself, not just for Xander. Then they made love, and as Xander’s hands wrapped around the spindles of the antique headboard, he realized that from now on, to him, mahogany was always going to represent love.


End file.
